A printing system typically includes one or more printheads and a paper path including an input tray for loading media, a print region for printing, and an output tray for stacking printed sheets of media. In some types of printers, the printhead has an extent of marking elements that is as wide as the widest type of media that can be accepted by the printer. In such printers, sometimes called page-width printers, the image is printed raster line by raster line as the media is moved relative to the printhead. Although page-width printers can be advantaged for high speed printing, they can be expensive due to the high cost of the page-width printhead.
A common type of printer architecture is the carriage printer, where the printhead marking element array is somewhat smaller than the extent of the region of interest for printing on the recording medium and the printhead is mounted on a carriage. In a carriage printer, the recording medium is advanced a given distance along a media advance direction and then stopped. While the recording medium is stopped, the printhead is moved by the carriage in a carriage scan direction that is substantially perpendicular to the media advance direction as the marks are made on the recording medium by the printhead. After the printhead has printed a swath of the image while traversing the recording medium, the recording medium is advanced, the carriage direction of motion is reversed, and the image is formed swath by swath.
There are a variety of media path architectures that are known. A so-called “C-shaped” media path having the output tray substantially parallel to the input tray can be advantageous for a compact printer design, and particularly a shorter height printer design. Typically in a C-shaped media path printer, the output tray is located directly over the input tray.
For an output tray that is located close to the input tray, it can be difficult to load media into the input tray. Some printer designs have the output tray mounted on a hinge so that an outward edge of the output tray can be pivoted upward for improved access for media loading into the input tray. U.S. Pat. No. 7,243,915 discloses one example of a hinged output tray that, among its other purposes, provides improved access to the input tray.
To further reduce the height of the printer, in some printers the output tray is spaced very close to the input tray. As a result, even pivoting the output tray about a pivot point away from the input tray does not provide sufficiently easy access to the input tray for media loading.
What is needed is a media tray configuration that facilitates easy access to the input tray for media loading in a printer having a compact design including a close spacing between the input tray and the output tray when the printer is in its operating condition. Furthermore, the way of providing easy access should be low cost, and easy for the user to operate in a reliable fashion.